A report released last Friday by Alaskan lawmakers states that Sarah
Palin violated state ethical laws. Way back whenever, before she was sworn in as governor, she became embroiled in a family feud, and began pressuring state public safety commissioner Walter
Monegan to fire state trooper Michael Wooten, her brother in law, who was engaged in a messy divorce.
Monegan refused her demands, and
Palin fired him after becoming governor. While the report found that it was within her constitutional right to fire him, she violated ethical laws by pressuring and intimidating
Monegan before her
inauguration. Palin maintains that she's happy that the report cleared her of any legal wrong-doing. When it was pointed out that in fact she was, she diverted the topic back to the fact that she had the right to fire Monegan after attaining office, saying,
"I think that you’re always going to ruffle feathers as you do what you believe is in the best interest of the people whom you are serving. In this case I knew that I had to have the right people in the right position at the right time in this cabinet to best serve Alaskans, and Walt Monegan was not the right person at the right time to meet the goals that we had set out in our administration.
So no, not having done anything wrong, and again very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all."
She concluded by saying that the investigation "did turn into a partisan circus".
-bWa
What is interesting and telling is that Gov. Palin needs to deny any wrong doing in this case because it does not pay off politically to take responsibility for abuse of power. Her best move is to obviscate and immediately change the topic. That is what she believes and that is what her handlers are telling her what to do...not that she listens to them.
ReplyDelete(That is, of course, her attraction. My sense is that some people watch her because she has the common touch and many people watch her for the same reasons they watch NASCAR. They watch to see a huge wreck when it happens.)
This strange denial works in the short term I think but not in the long run. Palin's problem is that her folksy, populist approach is not building the "social capital reserves'" that she could then spend in admitting some guilt.